Speaking up for change: our stories, our vision

L-R: Buse, Zak, Waseela, Diana, Harriet and Aleena

Six fantastic young people take on the issues closest to their hearts and make their voices heard

We are growing up in a moment when, in theory, everyone has a voice. According to Sprout Social, nearly 98% of young people in the UK use social media. The internet has made it possible for us to share ideas, start conversations, and drive real change. But having access is not the same as having a platform.

The Publishers Association reports that 65% of people working in UK publishing come from professional backgrounds. The people deciding whose stories get told aren’t part of our generation, they don’t look or sound like us. That needs to change.

We write to be creative, to establish our feelings, and to make sense of the world. We also write to change it. That’s why we’re here. With Exposure we have a voice.

We come from different backgrounds and we care about different things. What we share is the belief that our perspectives deserve to be heard and that telling our stories honestly is one of the most powerful tools we have. Here, in our words, is what we’ve each been working on:

Feminism is a complicated word with many different meanings and interpretations. What does it mean to be a young woman in a patriarchal and unequal society that still hasn’t fully decided whether it values women?

Girlguiding reports, 69% of girls my age feel they are expected to act differently because of their gender and half say they feel less safe because of sexism and misogyny.

A girl learns how to shrink herself long before she learns who she is. I’m exploring this box many women and girls are forced to shut themselves into, through fashion; an art as powerful and liberating as poetry. I used them together to speak truth, that across the world women spend more time surviving inequality than becoming who they could have been.

I needed somewhere to put my anger that wasn’t just noise; to give all in the world girls a voice.
Diana, 17

My story begins with my background, culture and heritage, and with my father’s journey from war-torn Afghanistan to London. In my writing, I want to explore how our family history has shaped who I am, and why, in a diverse city like London, it is so important to listen to and understand one another’s stories.

My father left a country at war so that I could grow up in a city that sometimes forgets to wonder where people come from. This is his story which shapes my life.
Aleena, 16

More than one in 100 people in the UK are autistic, a figure highlighted by the National Autistic Society. Global estimates vary and are likely higher depending on how autism is identified and diagnosed.

Autism is often portrayed in films and media through stereotypes such as super abilities or social isolation. These are how most of the world view autistic people, but it is not always true. I choose to write about autism to explore the gap between how it is shown in the media and the real challenges autistic people may face.

By discussing common misconceptions and raising awareness, I hope people can learn more about autism, understand the difficulty they face in everyday life, and be able to offer help when they can.
Harriet, 16

I care about politics. I always have. But at 17 in 2026, I still don’t get a vote.

In the last general election, turnout among 18 to 24 year olds fell to around 35%, according to House of Commons Library analysis of Electoral Commission and British Election Study data. My generation is often shut out of the conversation, and then blamed for not caring.

What I’m seeing is that more young men in the UK now hold unfavourable views of feminism than five years ago, while certain voices online have more followers than most world leaders. At the same time, more young women are politically active than ever before.

I want to understand what that means for my generation, what feminism actually stands for in 2026, and why the stakes feel higher than ever.
Buse, 17

I’ve been paying attention to something most people walk past: homelessness in Finchley. The gap between the statistics and the actual person in the actual doorway.

I’m interested in why this crisis keeps growing and what it means for all of us who walk past it every day.

Homeless Link data points to a 63% rise in rough sleeping in London over a decade. I walk past the same man most mornings in North Finchley. I don’t know his name yet. My ideas are about finding out about the faces and stories behind the statistics and about how this crisis affects us.
Zak, 17

When you grow up in a household where mental health isn’t talked about, you can start to feel as though your own feelings shouldn’t be talked about either. Because of that silence, many young people are left trying to understand anxiety on their own.

In my writing, I want to explore what anxiety feels like and why talking about it matters.

Anxiety isn’t just feeling nervous before a test. It can feel like your brain is treating everything as an emergency, leaving you exhausted before the day has even begun.

NHS figures show that around one in five children and young people aged 8 to 25 experienced a mental health difficulty in 2023.

I used to dread maths because I was too anxious to ask for help. But after speaking to my dad and my teacher, a small change in where I sat made a big difference. It showed me that talking to someone can make the weight feel lighter.
Waseela, 15